U.R.A. payouts for prostitutes
Operators of one-woman brothels in an Urban Renewal Authority project site could receive cash payments if they can prove they are tenants

Joyce Ng
Nov 26, 2011           
   
Two dozen prostitutes from a row of Kowloon City tenements could be fully compensated under a HK$1.2 billion redevelopment project by the Urban Renewal Authority.
The women operate one-woman brothels in eight subdivided flats and will be treated as residential tenants. They were expected to receive a cash payment if they could prove they were genuine tenants, an authority spokesman said yesterday.


"Our policy is to compensate tenants regardless of their occupations," he said. "But according to our experience, some sex workers don't sign rental contracts with landlords. In that case, they will have to produce evidence to convince us they have rented and used the place."

The authority announced yesterday that it would acquire 16 tenement blocks at 66-82 Kowloon City Road and redevelop the site into two residential blocks with 180 flats by 2020.

It estimates the project will cost HK$1.2 billion.

Calvin Lam Che-leung, the authority's operations director, said the 1950s tenements were chosen because of their poor structural condition. He also said the busy traffic on the East Kowloon Corridor running in front of the blocks was disturbing residents.

The authority pays residential tenants an amount equal to three times the government-estimated annual rental value of the properties.

For example, a tenant in a subdivided flat paying HK$2,500 a month, or HK$30,000 a year, would receive HK$90,000 in compensation.

Instead of a cash payment, tenants can choose to go into public rental housing, if they are permanent residents and satisfy an income test. This option does not apply to prostitutes from the mainland who have not obtained permanent residency.

No women at the brothels answered the doorbell during a visit by the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583, announcements, news) yesterday. Most of them had a "please wait" sign outside their doors.

This is the third time the authority has dealt with prostitutes.

In the Kwun Tong Town Centre project, the authority's biggest, 108, or 6 per cent, of the total affected households were brothels. A second project, in Sham Shui Po, involved eight prostitutes. A person familiar with the situation said the authority's past redevelopment project in Sham Shui Po had forced prostitutes to move to Kowloon City.

Homeowners affected by the Kowloon City Road project can either choose to receive a sum equivalent to the value of a seven-year-old private flat in the neighbourhood, or get the "flat-for-flat" option and move into new units being built by the authority on the former Kai Tak airport site.

Residents in general welcomed the redevelopment.

Chan Sheung-kwan, 78, who lives in a subdivided flat facing the expressway, said he hoped to move to a public rental flat nearby.

"It is very noisy outside especially when motorbikes go by," he said.

But a family running a noodle shop on the ground floor for 40 years said they would lose their customer base if they moved to a new place.

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